Chapter 10 – Isabel Yustia (1)
[Translator – Peptobismol]
Chapter 10 – Isabel Yustia (1)
Between late spring and early summer.
The day Isabel first met Kyle was a day when the whole world seemed to be filled with greenery.
Isabel had heard a lot about Kyle.
Winfred’s illegitimate child, a bastard, and a half-breed.
The disgrace of Winfred, incompetent, vile, and wicked.
That was the general evaluation of Kyle Winfred by society.
Although they were only rumors, Isabel didn’t harbor any doubts.
After all, there’s no smoke without fire, and leaves don’t grow on rootless trees.
— Um… I’m Kyle Winfred.
Isabel didn’t like Kyle Winfred from the beginning.
His blushing face when their eyes met, his slightly excited tone, and his constant gazes—all of it didn’t sit well with her.
She didn’t like him because he was too different from her.
But she didn’t show the primitive emotions boiling inside her.
She simply faced him with a fake smile and pretense, just as she would a young man her age.
And perhaps that was the catalyst.
Kyle’s obsession with Isabel grew deeper as time went on.
He came to the mansion uninvited, begging for her affection.
Every visit, he brought valuable gifts.
A pure smile that seemed to ease his breath whenever he saw her face.
Yes, Kyle loved Isabel.
His eyes sparkled with devoted love.
His bright azure irises were focused solely on Isabel.
And Isabel knew it too.
Unless she was a fool, she could tell from the way Kyle looked at her.
Even though she scolded him for minor mistakes, threw tantrums unexpectedly, or made cutting remarks unintentionally.
— Isabel, I’m so lucky to have you.
Kyle’s gaze was always directed towards Isabel.
His blindly adoring gaze, unlike anything she’d seen before, somehow romantically touched her.
Realizing that fact, a corner of her heart itched strangely.
Then, one day.
The mansion was turned upside down by shocking news.
— Isabel! A marriage proposal has come from the Duke Winfred’s house.
That day, her father was happier than anyone else to hear the news of the engagement with Winfreds.
The thought of marrying a man she had never even considered as a potential husband chilled a corner of her heart.
Her father who arranged the engagement, Winfred themselves, who proposed it, and Kyle who loved her.
She hated everything about it.
— Kyle Winfred? Please spare me. Rumor has it that he’s been causing such a fuss using the Duke’s prestige as a shield for being the illegitimate child.
— According to the servants working in Winfred’s manor, if even a something small goes wrong, he resorts to vicious acts.
— Did you know? He is so greedy that whenever he sees someone better than him, he can’t hide his feelings of inferiority and starts causing trouble.
Rumors, rumors, and more rumors.
She shivered every time she heard the gossip.
The news that the biggest bastard of the Empire and the darling of Yustia were getting engaged soon spread through the high circles.
The constant worries, mixed with complaints and reproaches, were dreadful. It suffocated her.
From that day on, Isabel treated Kyle with disdain.
Whenever he came to visit, she hurled insults at him, stabbed him in the heart, and pressured him coercively to break off the engagement.
Yet, his unwavering affectionate gaze was hateful.
— Get over your delusions! Just having a conversation with a person like you is a torment!
The moment Kyle’s face contorted with dismay was satisfying.
Isabel was convinced that was his true face.
The biggest bastard of the Empire had been wearing a mask all this time.
Kyle couldn’t respond and left in disarray.
He wouldn’t come back again, surely.
Despite achieving what she wanted, a sense of unease crept into Isabel’s heart.
— Isabel, I missed you.
After a few days, Kyle visited the Count’s estate again, wearing his usual smiling face.
Isabel felt nauseous but relieved deep down.
Realizing that his love for her still remained, she felt indescribable emotions.
From that day on, Isabel became numb.
Any lingering guilt disappeared completely, and the intensity of her verbal abuse towards Kyle increased day by day.
She wanted to break off her engagement with Kyle.
However, she was unable to directly ask her father to break off the engagement.
In the end, she didn’t want to destroy her family’s happiness with her own hands.
She poured her stray anger onto Kyle.
She hoped Kyle, growing tired of her, would unilaterally demand an annulment.
Perhaps Kyle read Isabel’s heart, for he hurried the engagement instead.
— Isabel, there’s no history of breaking off an engagement between families so recklessly.
Kyle murmured in a calm voice.
There was no anger or sadness in his serene tone.
It was as gentle as chastising an unruly child.
Daringly, and without thinking.
In the end, Isabel spat out lies inadvertently.
To restore her wounded pride, to scratch Kyle Winfred’s self-esteem.
— The ring?
— Ah, that.
— I threw it away. It was bothersome.
Kyle’s azure pupils were stained with shock.
His breaths were irregular, as if a knife had been stabbed in his lungs.
A chilly silence enveloped them.
He soon turned away and left the parlor.
In his departing figure, there was a deep sense of defeat.
Her heartbeat pounded throughout her body.
That day, Isabel spoke lies with her own mouth for the first time in her life.
****
Finally, Kyle and Isabel officially became a married couple.
As time passed, many things changed in their relationship.
Kyle no longer begged for Isabel’s affection.
And Isabel still detested Kyle terribly.
At Isabel’s strong insistence, they used separate chambers despite being married, and omitted any intimacy to create an heir.
She only communicated through the servants and thoroughly avoided any encounters with Kyle.
She began to have nightmares.
Due to recent sleepless nights, her condition worsened, and her health deteriorated rapidly.
On a rainy day.
It was a night of terror, filled with fear of dying from fever.
— M-Madam…! Something terrible has happened…!!
The mansion had suddenly become a scene of chaos.
As she staggered out into the corridor, the thick scent of blood pierced her nostrils.
Raising her head, she followed the trail of scattered bloodstains on the floor, only to meet Kyle Winfred’s sinister gaze.
Kyle had slit the nanny’s throat.
The person who had been her support, all in the name of lese majeste.
— Lese majeste? How dare you!!
— Are you telling me you killed her just because you felt like it? Is that what you’re trying to say?
— Go to hell, Kyle Winfred.
Isabel gritted her teeth and spit it out.
Each word was like a sharp blade.
[Translator – Peptobismol]
Isabel’s hand trembled mercilessly as she gripped Kyle’s collar in anger.
Kyle didn’t offer any excuses.
Although his eyes seemed to hold something to say, he chose to remain silent.
And Isabel didn’t bother to ask for any explanations.
She didn’t want to hear any hastily concocted excuses.
The next day, Isabel woke up in her sickbed.
She felt refreshed, as if awakening from a nightmare fueled by intense hatred.
Kyle Winfred had left for the imperial palace.
Tearing her heart apart without saying a word.
And
— Madam, something terrible has happened! There are outrageous rumors circulating in high society…
Rumors of an illicit affair with a man she met at a banquet had rocked high society.
It was the day after Kyle Winfred left for the imperial palace.
She couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all.
On the evening she went to the imperial palace to open a trial for divorce, her close friend Ludvik came to the mansion and vented his frustration.
Offering warm tea and pastries, he poured out his grievances like a torrent.
— Isabel, Kyle Winfred, that bastard is completely insane.
— He’s about to join hands with the noble faction and start a rebellion.
— Come with me.
— You’ve always wanted to leave this mansion, haven’t you?
Isabel splashed her face with cold water.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.
As always, the culprit was Kyle Winfred, that damned human.
Isabel, with a response that she needed time to think, sent Ludvik away.
And the next day.
Through the housemaid, Isabel heard the news of Ludvik’s death.
Isabel could intuitively know the culprit of the incident was none other than Kyle.
The taut strings of her rationality snapped.
The temperature in the room dropped sharply.
— Fetch these for me.
Isabel instructed the maid to discreetly start preparing.
Only she could stop Kyle’s spreading madness like wildfire.
Isabel had no doubts about that.
She dipped a lethal substance prepared by the maid into a teacup.
After setting the table perfectly, Kyle, responding to her summon, entered with a numb face.
He drank from the cup without a hint of suspicion.
Cough—Even as he coughed up dark red blood, he didn’t stop drinking the tea.
As if he had been waiting for this moment.
— I curse you.
A faint smile melted onto Kyle’s face.
Kyle, who collapsed to the floor, writhed in agony, and soon turned into a lifeless corpse.
In the serene silence, Isabel’s sobs were the only thing audible.
****
Isabel killed Kyle.
She had repeated to herself many times that it was an accident.
She felt as if her skin was being peeled off due to the overwhelming sense of guilt.
— Madam, poison was found in the nanny’s belongings.
— Evidence has emerged that the nanny consistently poisoned your food…
— It seems the master, upon learning of this… the nanny…
The sight of Kyle drinking the tea she had served and vomiting up blood struck her.
— A message has arrived from the imperial palace.
— The one who deliberately spread the rumor was none other than Madam’s close friend, Ludvik…
Kyle’s affectionate gaze, as he looked at her, wouldn’t leave her mind.
— Madam! Have you heard the news?
— It seems that Ludvik, who often visited the mansion, was a spy for the nobles faction.
— According to the discovered note, he planned to abduct you and hold you hostage… My goodness! He deserved to die.
Gradually, her shattered reason began to slowly recover.
Kyle… her husband…
Even until the moment of his death, he loved her.
“Ah, ah… ahhhh…!!”
There was moisture in her bloodshot eyes.
She scratched her body until blood flowed, her nails raised.
— Isabel, I’m so lucky to have you.
Kyle’s voice echoed in her bleached mind like a stake.
Isabel’s pupils turned transparent.
Breathing became difficult as her self-loathing strangled her.
If only I had just died right then… Arrogant thoughts dominated her mind.
“Kyle… Kyle…!!”
If only she had accepted Kyle’s sincerity just once.
If only she had comforted him with warmth.
No, if only she had never existed in the first place.
All the facts she had missed drove Isabel insane.
“Please… give me one more chance…”
The cries bursting from her throat were small and pathetic.
“I… I was wrong…”
She wanted to see Kyle.
Even if it was an illusion, she wanted him to call her with that sweet voice.
A thick residue of regret began to accumulate and form a pool.
Then it happened.
[You may lose what is most precious to you]
[Would you like to start over from the beginning?]
Something semi-transparent appeared in her blurred vision.
A warning that she might lose what is most precious to her.
And a whisper asking if she wanted to start over.
“…Please.”
Isabel didn’t hesitate.
Whatever was most precious, it couldn’t be more precious than Kyle.
Shortly after.
With a ringing in her ears, her vision narrowed.
[Initiating Regression]
[Wishing you good luck]
Isabel soon lost consciousness.
[Translator – Peptobismol]
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